By Tate Papworth
Brimbank’s library services continue to grow in popularity.
Data released by the council this month shows more than two million customer service interactions were carried out across the city’s five libraries in the past financial year.
A substantial increase in visitation was experienced by the Sunshine and Keilor libraries – visitation to the Keilor library increased by 27.3 per cent, while loans jumped a massive 33.8 per cent.
Sunshine library visitation climbed 12.7 per cent, but new members dipped 5.1 per cent, while loans also fell 5.3 per cent.
Deer Park and Sydenham library remain stable but the picture wasn’t as bright for St Albans library.
Visitation at St Albans library was down 11.6 per cent, loans down 9.5 per cent and new membership fell by 0.6 per cent.
There was a 23.4 per cent increase in loans of e-books and e-magazines across the city’s five libraries.
The council said that the decline at St Albans indicates that the facility is not meeting community needs.
It cited constrained space at the library as likely to be a significant contributor to the drop in visitation.
Cr Victoria Borg said further investigation was required.
“It is interesting to note that while a substantial increase in visitation was experienced by Sunshine and Keilor libraries, useage at St Albans library is declining,” Cr Borg said. “As we have noted in one of the previous reports … a study will be conducted in regards to the St Albans library to see why this is happening.”
Numbers at the municipality’s other two libraries, Deer Park and Sydenham, remained similar to the previous year.
